Box 'sees' USB stick but won't use it

My Humax Forum » Freeview HD » HD FOX T2

Box 'sees' USB stick but won't use it

(6 posts)

alan997

member
Joined: Mar '13
Posts: 18
offline

I was using an old Maxtor 320Gb external HDD and that worked fine. Until the HD died. Then I tried a USB stick. The box couldn't see it. ('Available size 0Gb')I read up a bit and discovered it needs to be 20Gb+ for some sort of buffering reason. So I got a 32Bg stick. And formatted it in EXT3. And sure enough, it recognised it! ('Available size 28.2Gb') But 'Format storage' and 'Select the HDD for PVR' are both greyed out. So, it seems it knows there's a disk; it can see the 28.2GB; and it reports '100% available'. (It even correctly flags up that it's EXT3) But it won't actually use it.

Any suggestions/advice much appreciated.

| Wed 8 Mar 2017 13:16:58 #1 |
grahamlthompson

special member
Joined: Feb '11
Posts: 14,442
offline

In general USB sticks aren't suitable for recording to. Firstly they must be capable of handling the stream of data without interruption in real time from the digital tuner. They will also wear out very rapidly when used for a live TV buffer due to the limited number of write rewrite cycles thay have compared to a proper hard disk. If I remember correctly the HD FOX T2 will not use USB flash memory as a recording drive.

No issue with copying an existing video file to a usb stick and replaying from it.

| Wed 8 Mar 2017 13:33:51 #2 |
Luke

special member
Joined: Apr '11
Posts: 1,496
offline

alan997 - 27 minutes ago »
.. I got a 32Bg stick. And formatted it in EXT3. And sure enough, it recognised it! ('Available size 28.2Gb') But 'Format storage' and 'Select the HDD for PVR' are both greyed out. So, it seems it knows there's a disk; it can see the 28.2GB; and it reports '100% available'. (It even correctly flags up that it's EXT3) But it won't actually use it.
Any suggestions/advice much appreciated.

There are at least a couple of reports of a native HD-FOX T2 formatting USB flash.
See first 2 bullet points of
https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/hd-fox-t2-pvr-functionality-using-32gb-pen-drive.2197/#post-26679

Also I have managed it with a 64GB, although initially it also refused
https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/hd-fox-t2-pvr-functionality-using-32gb-pen-drive.2197/page-2#post-26769

An alternative approach would be to use the HD-FOX T2's custom firmware to format in ext2 which would help the life of the USB.

| Wed 8 Mar 2017 14:00:35 #3 |
alan997

member
Joined: Mar '13
Posts: 18
offline

Thanks very much for your swift and helpful replies. I think I'll give up on the USB stick and try an external HDD. Any tips on that? I did try an old HD from an old Humax PVR which went pfut (the drive is ok) - again, I formatted it to EXT3, which I was told the box prefers, but it didn't even recognise it(('Available size 0Gb'), tho' my PC and laptop have no problems with it. I'd prefer a lo-cost solution if possible! I'm not particularly poor, just tight as a gnat's chuff.

| Wed 8 Mar 2017 14:28:16 #4 |
grahamlthompson

special member
Joined: Feb '11
Posts: 14,442
offline

If you want to use a 3.5" drive, don't expect the box to be able to power it. I used a 3.5" USB drive with my HD FOX T2, but it it was seperately powered. I used a PC USB power saving extention lead to power the external drive on and off with the power switching provided by a usb hub. That worked just fine.

| Wed 8 Mar 2017 14:34:55 #5 |
alan997

member
Joined: Mar '13
Posts: 18
offline

Great! I'll try that. Thanks. I'll report back...

| Wed 8 Mar 2017 14:36:27 #6 |